Google's parent company is investing in geothermal, a $34 billion energy source

On July 6, X, the "moonshot" division of Google's parent company
Alphabet,
announced that it's launching a new geothermal
company, called
Dandelion.

The company, which has raised $2 million, said it
plans to affordably drill and install geothermal systems in homes
to heat and cool them.

Geothermal systems leverage a type of renewable energy
that
some
researchers
say has vast potential. The geothermal energy market was
valued at over
$34 billion in 2016 and is set to grow to
$57 billion by 2024, according to a 2017 Global Market
Insights report. Though the United States is the largest
consumer of geothermal power in the world, only about
0.4% of electricity — enough for about three million
Americans — comes from geothermal energy today.

Dandelion will pursue shallow geothermal energy, which
takes advantage of the fact that the ground below a certain depth
remains relatively consistent temperature-wise yearround. The
ground essentially acts as a battery, and heat or cooling energy
is extracted by recirculating a fluid through tubes in the
ground, called "boreholes."

For electricity, geothermal energy comes from the
slow decay of radioactive particles, which generate hot
water or steam, produced deep inside the earth. Earth's core
generates an almost
unlimited amount of particles (and heat), making geothermal
energy renewable. To tap into geothermal energy
for electricity, energy companies drill wells (usually
around four feet deep) and pump the hot water or steam through
pipes to bring it indoors. Gothermal power plants use the hot
water to drive electrical generators.

The heat in the upper six miles of the Earth's crust
contains 50,000
times as much energy as found in the world's oil and gas
reserves combined. Despite this, the world has
harnessed just
13,200 megawatts — or about
6% — of geothermal generating capacity.

But that percentage is expected to rise. Based on current data,
the Geothermal Energy Association
expects the global geothermal industry to reach about 18,400
megawatts capacity by 2021.

Several factors have slowed the growth of geothermal energy in
the US, including cost, restricted access to optimal plant
locations, and long project times. Many geothermal plants, for
example, need to be in places where there is a lot of accessible
high-temperature ground water. According
to the US Energy Administration, geothermal energy's
greatest growth potential is in western states, like California,
Idaho, and Utah.

The initial cost of installing geothermal technology is
expensive, though the average price per kilowatt is less
than other renewable sources. Dandelion claims to make a
geothermal system that will cost less than most systems on
the market today. The startup has developed a more efficient tool
to install its system, co-founder and CEO Kathy Hannun
told CNBC. Installation of a Dandelion system would cost a
homeowner between $20,000 to $25,000 upfront, or between $160 to
$180 a month over 20 years, she said.